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this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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Exactly. It is about programmability. And that is dumb.
Imagine you have a piece of hardware that is not programmable. The FSF says that hardware is fine. Buy the shit out it and “be free” apparently.
Version 2 of that hardware is released with the new feature that the firmware is upgradable. Of course, only closed firmware updates are available initially. According to the FSF, this programmable hardware must now be avoided. Keep buying the original “more free” version that cannot be programmed.
And if you do have hardware version 2, the FSF says you should at least never update your firmware. Nevermind new features. Security fixes are to be avoided. Because the baked in firmware is more free than the firmware update. It is not that you are not using closed firmware. Of course you are. But you did not change it. So that is better?
It is total nonsense.
If there was a Free Hardware Foundation, a device whose hardware was programmable and whose firmware could be upgraded would clearly be seen as superior to one that was completely closed. It is definitely more open, “more free” hardware even if only closed firmware is available. The hardware is obviously more free. Self-evidently.
But the FSF position is that this “more free” hardware is less free than fully closed options when only closed firmware exists. There is no way for that to make sense unless you move “firmware” into the software bucket and completely ignore the concept of hardware all together. Sorry, but that is dumb.
It is also a good way to roadblock progress towards open hardware. Please stop.
An organization which exists exclusively to advocate for a type of program caring about programmability is not dumb. That seems... kinda obvious? They don't exist to rate the technical superiority or inferiority of hardware devices, they exist to advocate for the simple position that: if a device can be programmed, the user of that device ought to control the program on the device, not some company which happens to hold the copyright over the on-device program.
Um... absolutely not? They say that running proprietary firmware represents an injustice (perpetrated by the copyright holders of the firmware, btw, not the user). Updating the firmware to free software would obviously be great in the eyes of the FSF; upgrading to proprietary firmware would be simply continuing the existing, unjust status quo. You appear to have completely made up this particular position.